We continue our series of profiles on POC-run arts and literary events, groups and resources based in Portland, Oregon. Here, De-Canon speaks to Anna Vo, musician, artist, zine-maker and publisher, and community organizer of IntersectFest, a festival from artists of color, which is in its third year of programming and takes place this year from December 8-10, at Ford Food & Drink and other locations around Portland. See the Facebook Event page here for more details and a full schedule.
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1) In a few words, what is IntersectFest?
Intersect Fest, in its third year, is a festival from artists of color. Starting from a punk DIY culture three years ago, it has expanded to also include other musicians, visual artists, performance artists, dancers, zine makers, craftspeople, poets, and this year also a yogi who will lead a POC only yoga class.
It will take place at several venues across Portland including Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Blackwater Bar, Unite Oregon, and Ford Food and Drink.
2) What need or desire do you see IntersectFest filling in our community at this moment in time? In short: why this, why now?
When the festival started three years ago there was nothing else quite like it, especially focusing on educational workshops, POC only spaces, punk culture and punk music, and a craft fair for vendors of color only. Last year we opened the vending to all people, and we will do that again this year. Additionally, this year we open with our opening poetry event, and [we have] an art event at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, all in order to celebrate, witness, and center our incredible artists of color.
Now, three years later, there are several events and series of events that center artists of color, which is fantastic, so the need that we are filling currently is that of presenting a unified festival where a lot of those things are happening under one umbrella, where we visibilize and center people of color.
3) Tell us a little about some of the artists or performances or experiences that will be a part of this year’s IntersectFest.
Firstly, I want to recognize that the festival takes place on stolen occupied land of the Multnomah People of the Upper Chinook. We will open the Festival with either a private or public ceremony of respect and thanks. In the past years, we have opened the Festival with an intertribal drum ceremony and Aztec dance ceremony.
On the opening night, Friday the 8th, we have 12 formidable poets who will draw from their pools of brilliance. In a time where resistance and radicalization and political organizing are vital, we will have 12 people of color perform who are inherently politicized through their life experiences.
Similarly, our visual artists (Celeste Noche and Mercedes Orozco) who we are exhibiting on Saturday [at Unite Oregon], the curation by Nat Turner Project on Sunday [at PICA], and the variety of vendors at the craft fair, are all folks creating directly, genuinely and authentically from their perspectives. Our POC-only yoga exists with the knowledge that most healing practices and non-western medicines are appropriated from communities of color. In the past POC-only yoga has been resisted and met with anger. We are proud to present a session led by Cookie, a local black Yogi who recently graduated.
Our Rage Radical concert will be at Blackwater Bar, headlined by local duo Brown Calculus. We have three bands traveling for the festival - Wayside Ghost, Coherence, and Mala Racha.
The Nat Turner Project are a Portland Black Art collective, who we are honored to work with and have their work presented at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art to close out our festival this year.
4) How did IntersectFest come about, and/or how (or) is it a reflection of your own personal journey, to any degrees?
It is an effort to center the narratives of people of color in Portland, and exhibit the work of artists of color from Portland and elsewhere. It is a refusal to submit to a narrative of whiteness being centered in Portland.
5) Where did the name for this event come from? How would you like us to reflect on the word “intersect” here?
To reflect on intersections of identity, time, generations, diaspora, geography, queerness, gender, complexity, intention, and history.
Most importantly, it will be a node of interaction and generative creativity for many of us, and, as in the past, it will be the beginning of several different futures of those that attend.
IntersectFest takes place December 8-10, 2017 in Portland, Oregon. See Event Page for more details.
INTERSECTFEST: A FESTIVAL FROM ARTISTS OF COLOR
Friday Dec 8
6-10pm
Ancient Wisdom: Twelve Poets Of Color
@ Ford Food and Drink / 2505 SE 11th Ave
7:15 Anna Vo
7:25 Neil Aitken
7:35 Ryan Nakano
7:45 Sea Mason
8:00 Jake Vermaas
8:15 Jenna Fletcher
8:30 Julian Smuggles
8:45 Jamila Osman
9:00 Stacey Tran
9:15 Kalimah Abioto
9:30 Stephanie Adams-Santos
9:45 Kiki Nicole
Saturday Dec 9
@ Unite Oregon / 700 N Killingsworth St
10-11am POC-only Yoga Session with Cookie / Masimbaashe Zvovushe
@ Unite Oregon / 700 N Killingsworth St
12-6pm Art and Zine Fest with over 30 exhibitors!
Visual art by Mercedes Orozco, Celeste Noche and more.
RADICAL RAGE
@ Black Water / 835 NE Broadway
7-10pm
Brown Calculus
Coherence (Oakland)
Wayside Ghost (Eugene)
Mala Racha (WA)
Acracy
Sunday Dec 10
@ Portland Institute For Contemporary Art (PICA) / 15 NE Hancock St
3-7pm
A Curation by Nat Turner Project
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Anna Vo's art and work can be found at:
littlestink.wordpress.com
fixmyhead.storeenvy.com
anoutbandcamp.com
annavo.bandcamp.com
